Principles Of Forgiveness

by K.H. Riley, Wembley, England | Category: The Lord's Parables | May 1991

There are at least three ways in which we can look at forgiveness (1) God's forgiveness of the sinner (2) the forgiveness by one forgiven sinner to another and (3) the forgiveness by a church of God of the repentant saint.

In the parable spoken by the Lord in Luke 7:40-50 we see the forgiveness of God to the sinner, and in that of Matthew 18:23-25 the forgiveness that forgiven sinners should show to one another. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit uses three words which are translated "forgive", but one is reserved for the use of God's forgiveness only. One word has the meaning of "pardon", another the thought of "lifting" and the third the thought of "covering". In Psalm 32 David writes, "Blessed is he whose transgression (rebellion) is forgiven (lifted) whose sin (faulty action) is covered".

It is the Hebrew word salach, usually translated forgive or pardon which is used solely in respect of God's forgiving. When forgiveness is also shown by man the thought is that of lifting. When God appeared on the Day of Atonement in the cloud on the mercy seat which covered the Ark, the sins of the people were dealt with by God. When Paul quotes the Psalm in Romans 4:7,8 he says the iniquities were "sent away" - equivalent to "lifting" - and the sins are "covered over".

In the parable in Luke the Lord is showing to Simon the forgiveness He extends to the sinner, even to the woman of the streets who had entered Simon's house. The simplicity of the message is contained in just fifty seven words in the Revised Version and demonstrates the simplicity of the gospel message to all who repent. No matter whether the debt is large or small the important point was that both debtors had nothing at all that they could use to pay. The debt of the thief on the cross was large - a five hundred pence debt if ever there was one, perhaps far larger than the debt of the woman whose own debt, as far as the world could judge, was larger than that of Simon. But the transcendent point was that he, Simon and the woman were completely unable to pay anything at all. The thief's only hope of forgiveness was on the basis of repentance, "death-bed" repentance though it was. All forgiveness shown by God is on the basis of the Cross and His only condition is repentance on the part of the sinner.

"Do you see this woman?" asked the Lord of Simon (NIV). He could see all right. He had probably looked at little else since she had begun her ministrations to the Lord and was thinking to himself what a poor judge of human nature he had as a guest. But he could only see the woman as she had been. The Lord saw the woman that she had become and the woman she could be when she had tasted the forgiveness that could only come with repentance. She was a fifty pence plus debtor and had nothing wherewith to pay, but now she was showing the repentance that Simon, the fifty pence debtor, never thought he needed to show.

Ephesians 1:7 speaks of "the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace". Thank God it is according to the riches of His grace and not our riches that forgiveness comes. The sins are sent away. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us" (Ps 103:12). We might say to each other "I can forgive but I can never forget". God not only forgives but He also forgets. The God who remembers to hold the heavens and the earth in His hands and control all things is nevertheless prepared to forget something: the fact that we had ever sinned. God was even prepared to forgive the worst crime of all - the putting to death of His Son. On the Cross the Lord could pray "Father, forgive them" and this forgiveness was shown after they had repented. Acts 6:7 tells us that "a great company of the priests were obedient to the Faith". The Lord's prayer on the Cross had been answered and the five hundred pence debtors were forgiven.

On turning to the parable in Matthew 18:23-35 we find it is much longer. In the Revised Version the number of words used is over two hundred and eighty. Why should the Lord tell another parable about forgiveness and this time have to use five times as many words as before? Because this time He is talking about the forgiveness that one man should show to another. Frail mankind finds it hard to forgive and even harder to forget. Peter had listened to the Lord speaking of forgiveness within the churches that His disciples were to establish. How many times should I forgive my brother - seven times? No, said the Lord, seventy times seven. By the time Peter had forgiven his brother that number of occasions forgiveness would have become second nature to him and he would not be able to help forgiving. Lamech in Gen. 4:24 said he would be avenged seventy seven times if anyone slighted him. But the Lord said that Peter was to show forgiveness many times more than even vicious Lamech was prepared to exact vengeance.

The parable in Matthew has unfortunately been taken out of its setting and used as an illustration of the forgiveness that the Lord shows to the sinner who is justified by faith in Christ. This is not the intention of the parable for, if so, we would have to explain how it could be that the Lord could take away the forgiveness associated with our justification. We know from other Scriptures that this would be impossible. Lose our eternal life? No. Lose the joy of salvation? Yes, that is possible, but God will never take away the forgiveness of sins that He gave to us at the new birth. No, in Matthew the Lord was dealing with human forgiveness, feeble though it is. It is noteworthy that the fff5t two mentions of the word in the Scriptures relate to the forgiveness to be shown by men. God had certainly demonstrated His forgiving character in many ways during the whole of Genesis but it is not until Genesis 50:17 that we get the first mention of the word. Joseph's brothers are acknowledging their sin against their brother, repenting and asking for his forgiveness. The second mention is in Exodus 10:17 where Pharaoh is asking forgiveness from Moses "only this once". His repentance was short-lived and although Moses may have been willing to forgive, God who knew the man's heart was not so prepared. In both cases the sense of the word is that of "lifting". Neither Joseph nor Moses could "cover" sins, that is, "pardon" (Hebrew - salach).

Coming back to our parable we see that the debt forgiven by the Icing to the first servant was an immense fortune. How long it had been accumulating! The man must have been a very trusted servant to have been given so much credit. It was certainly beyond his ability to repay quickly, and even if the king were to put him in prison, realize all his assets and sell his family into slavery', there would still have been a huge bad debt to be written off. But notice that in this parable he would have been able to pay something. In Luke's parable the debtors had nothing at all that they could use to pay off even "a bit on account". The king moved by his pleas freely forgave him all the debt. It is here that we get the merest glimpse of the pardon that as servants we have received from the hand of God. The debt was huge but we have been freely forgiven. What should be our response? The response of the servant was to go to a fellow servant and demand repayment of his debt which amounted to a few pounds - probably equivalent to three month's wages of a labourer. It certainly could not be repaid immediately but given a reasonable amount of time and a little belt tightening here and there it could have been repaid eventually. But no. The man who had been forgiven much was not prepared to forgive less in return and would do to his debtor what the king would at first have done to him. Notice it is his fellow servants who take action. They were appalled that so little human kindness could be shown by one who had been forgiven so much. Is this what we do when we see blatant unforgiveness being shown by a fellow-believer to another? It is matters like these that we should take to the Lord in prayer and He will act as He knows best. In this parable the king takes away the forgiveness that he showed in the first place. Is it possible that the Lord could take away what He gave to us when we came pleading forgiveness for all our sins? No, that forgiveness will never be repealed but He pleads with us, "forgiving each other ... even as the Lord forgave you" (Col. 3:13). "And be ye kind one

to another... tender-hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you" (Eph. 4:32).

But how does He deal with us if we don't? Mark 11:25 gives us the answer. "And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses". It is by withholding answers to our prayers that God will punish us if we do not show a forgiving spirit to others. An unforgiving spirit can become a barrier between the believer and God and lead to a powerless and prayerless life. Some Romish priests have suggested that masses paid for by the relatives of the dead can shorten the time spent in "purgatory"' and that none can come out until the last penny has been paid. That is a travesty of an interpretation of Matthew's parable. The Lord taught His disciples that when they prayed they should ask the Father, "forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (the Aramaic word for debt and sin are the ....... For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Mat. 6:12-15). Again, the forgiveness is to be shown before the time of prayer (see also Mat. 5:23-24) otherwise we cannot expect God to forgive the debts we owe for our daily failures. If we continue in an unforgiving spirit the barrier will always be there and we shall be the losers when our works come to be examined at the judgement seat.

K.H. Riley, Wembley, England | May 1991
The Lord's Parables